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When Marianne Matichuk applied for a job as food services supervisor at the city-owned Pioneer Manor almost 20 years ago, she didn't like the food, nor was she impressed with the home's accident rate in the dietary department.

Five years after landing the job, the satisfaction rate among residents with the food at the home had risen from 60 to 96%.

"People asked me how I did it. I asked (residents) what they wanted. It wasn't that hard," she says.

The accident rate was also high in the kitchen, which "was like 1956 stopped," she says. She worked with staff to make the environment safer and the rate of accidents fell drastically.

"It's about improvements," says Matichuk, whether on the job at Pioneer Manor, running her own catering business and restaurant or working out of city hall for seven years as health and safety officer.

That is why she is running for mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury.

"I'm one of these people (who ask): 'Why do they keep doing the same thing over and over again?' Fix the problem."

When she left the city in August 2008 to work with Vale Inco, Matichuk was responsible for the safety of the municipality's 3,500 employees

and 600 buildings.

"Basically, I ran safety," says Matichuk during an interview at her campaign headquarters at Cedar Pointe Plaza.

It was a responsibility she took seriously, educating supervisors, working with the city's joint health and safety committee and making sure "the internal responsibility system was working."

When asked what the appeal is of the health and safety field, Matichuk quickly answers: "I didn't want to see anybody get hurt. It was a proactive move for me. My thing was, it's accountability as a manager, that's what it really is all about."

Matichuk intends to bring that take-charge, solution-focused attitude with her should she be elected mayor.

She began thinking seriously about a mayoral run in August 2009. She didn't leave the city for the private sector because she was disgruntled, but she did see waste at city hall and that is part of her motivation for seeking the top job.

She recalls a particularly irksome episode, which she calls "the $1.6-million pothole patching fiasco."

It was 2007 when she sat with the guys at Frobisher and they told her it was going to be a nightmare to patch up roads. She said they told her, "It's going to cost millions and it's not going to do anything."

Front-line employees had a plan for how it should be done, but they told her no one would listen to them.

"This stuff is making me nuts," says Matichuk, "because the workers know how this works and they're not being listened to."

Two incidents solidified Matichuk's decision to seek mayoralty. One was a trip to St. Lucia with her husband, when travellers from Winnipeg and Wisconsin teased her about the Elton John scandal, in which Sudbury councillors got first crack at tickets to see the international superstar.

"I was shocked," says Matichuk. "I figured people from Canada had heard of it, but people from the States?"

As a "fourth-generation Sudburian," Matichuk says she was embarrassed about the black eye the incident gave the city.

Another "aha moment" was the current council's decision to raise its salaries.

The final straw came this spring when the former St. Joseph's Health Centre was sold to a private developer. Thousands of Sudburians believed Greater Sudbury Council should have acted to buy the property.

Matichuk says her father, William, was a staunch proponent of Bell Park remaining in citizens' hands and would have been outraged at the deal. Sudburians called him Wild Bill because "he told it like it was."

The St. Joseph's episode "was the icing" on her decision to run to unseat incumbent John Rodriguez. "I was so upset there was no public consultation on that."

Matichuk says her back-ground in business, starting at a young age in the family-owned business Mack's Clothes in the Donovan, in management at Cambrian College running Fontaine Bleue and her city experience all qualify her for the mayor's job.

"I'm a builder," she says. "I build things. I take something that's nothing and I look at it, and say, 'OK, we could do this.' "

Throughout her career with the city, she offered suggestions for improvement and most didn't cost much.

In 2003, she was involved in a white paper produced by city staff called "Building the City of Tomorrow."

It was well done, passed by council and "we never heard anything about it," she says.

One of her ideas was to encourage young entrepreneurs to set up concession stands at the Jim Gordon Boardwalk.

"What would it cost you? It wouldn't cost you anything," and they would complement the park, she says.

Another idea was to create a Walk of Fame in front of Sudbury Community Arena with stars for hockey stars and distinguished Sudburians, such as Bruce Mau "and the Adetuyi boys" with whom she went to school.

"Every other city has it. Why don't we have a Mike Foligno star?"

cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

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Marianne Matichuk

* Age: 50

* Supervisor of health and safety, Vale Ltd. Platform

* Make Greater Sudbury a healthy and safe place to live, work and play;

* Improve the economy and decrease the tax burden by attracting new business